So I have nothing to add other than what I said at the in-person discussion, so I'll just reiterate here:

-Definitely think the marathon needs to move back to the US. Feels like we've "exhausted" the Toronto/Niagara area in terms of new attendees. Moving the location to somewhere new would bring in new lifeblood for the event in terms of runners imo. NASA1 had a bunch of Midwest runners who showed up just because it was a new marathon in the area, which is something that's been lost since staying around Toronto for 3 years in a row. Chicago's been suggested a bunch and it's a great location, I'm in the area so if you guys ever need location scouting for Chicago/Milwaukee hmu.
-Cost and tech transportation have been the main mitigating factors from moving back to the US you guys said. For cost, I'm personally cool with paying more if it means a better venue ($120 would probably be my max) and bunch of the regulars said the same thing. My only concern is that such a high registration fee would deter more casuals attendees, or ones on the fence, from coming. Like if I'm just a random speedrunner from the area, seeing a $100+ registration fee would probably sway me away since I have no attachment to the event. I don't know what's good solution here outside of having lower-priced 1 or 2 day passes. With tech, honestly NASA1 had jank tech and I still think it was the best event. Like don't get me wrong, the current tech is fantastic and that's awesome. But I'd definitely take a downscale if it means moving the event to a better location.

-100% agree with Stingray about making NASA a charity event. It would help draw people both in attendance and viewership especially (which seemed low this year). It would also help just general promotion of the event on Twitch, since staff seems to really only promote events with a charity focus. Stream monsters love the interaction and having donation comments being read on stream is great for that. Honestly just not falling into the GDQ trap of reading sob stories24/7 and giving couch donation-reading privileges seems like a perfect solution imo.

-Last main point is that we should be doing more runner outreach. Like hypothetically if the event moves to like Orlando or something we should reach out Florida/Southern runners and see if they want to attend. Honestly a lot of people are just flat out unaware of the existence NASA in the first place. A lot would probably be down to attend if they knew about it though (which ties back into the point about making this a charity event to help increase brand exposure).
-Also think it'd help if there was a way to bring more big-name speedrunners out to the event to help promotion. I'd be down to do an online marathon to raise money for some popular runners (like a werster or zfg) to attend, if only just to bring more exposure to the event. If you don't wanna go that far, doing something like giving discounts on registration or just general outreach would work as well.

Outside of that here's a bunch of minor things:
-Agree with everyone saying there should be some itinerary for trips and all that. Don't see any downsides.
-Someone suggested having a 2nd stream for mafia/side activities on a gopro or something, that'd be sick. Fuck it if someone buys a drone I'll personally volunteer to fly it around the venue 24/7 for stream footage.
-Agree with people saying the online marathons (like the Jet Set Radio marathon) should be promoted more as NASA events. Like just having "NASA Presents: ..." and featuring the logo would help immensely in terms of promotion.
-Monthly newsletter is a great idea, definitely do that.
-A little thing, but the camera framing and physical seating setup could've been better. A lot of time the camera would only be capturing like 20% of the people actually sitting in attendance for a run, people would just be out of frame constantly.

As usual the event itself was great, always have a blast attending and meeting everyone. You guys know what you're doing right for the direction and vibe of the marathon. Looking forward to next year.

100% needs to get out of Ontario next year, going to stagnate otherwise. Like I said in the feedback thread, the US South, (e.g. Florida, Georgia, Texas) is a pretty strong pick due to that region having jackshit in terms of marathons. Would bring in new runners, which the marathon needs, and it'd be great just for varieties sake. Tech transportation and location scouting would be biggest hurdles. If need-be changing pre-NASA's goal towards funding tech transportation/scouting would be worth it just to move the event honestly.

For specific locations, Atlanta and Dallas are really solid cities with lots to do. For Florida just take your pick of any city east of Tallahassee, they'd all undoubtedly be close to a theme park. New Orleans would be great too, but I don't see Louisiana happening unfortunately.

Out of the cities listed in the OP Charlotte is the best pick, furthest south and most unique out of the lot. Baltimore would be interesting but seems too close to DC/AGDQ. Chicago is a safe pick, NASA 1's location and airport transportation was great. Would love to have a Round 1 within driving distance again too. Cleveland and Cincinnati seem pretty bland but I don't know the regions well, I'd just do Chicago if we're doing Midwest again.

But yeah if we're limiting to just those cities Charlotte is by far the best choice, but I'd still rather see it move further South.

This comment has been redacted by the moderator team because it contained offensive slurs.

"-This internet meme needs to stop "

wording this

-marathon was fun, lax atmosphere and all that
-hotel and rooms were good, never had any major issues with them and the free breakfast was nice.
-location was pretty solid, lots of food options and stuff to do in the area like Canada's wonderland. Not as good as last year's but you're not gonna beat a 24/7 Dennys and Round 1.
-stream/practice rooms got swampy as fuck. Stream room was fine most of the time but got swampy during big runs and the practice room was almost constantly running hot, there was no AC and mafia was unbearable until it was moved outside. Both rooms were a little small as well.
-tech shit was pretty bad at times, some long setup times (40 minute setup for marvel land lmao) and audio was hit-or-miss depending on the run just from the few VODs I watched. Audio seemed bad when the audience/couch tried to get miced up too
-dates for the marathon still sucked. few people like snowy and stingray got cucked out of coming because the marathon overlapped with their finals/graduation shit. Moving the marathon to June would be better.
-would like to see the marathon expanded from 5 to 7 days.
-wording headcrab, some PC runs were unwatchable just because the chair blocked the monitor.

also Toronto was good but the next location should be Southern or Western US imo, somewhere like Florida, Texas, or Colorado. Those areas don't have many major marathons and I wouldn't mind switching it up for varieties sake.

I'm completely down. Can bring a 64 with 2 controllers and copies of any of the games.

MP3 is the best choice tbh. It's less balanced than 2 but has way more interesting mechanics and strategies to mess around with because of its items.

There gonna be badges this time around?

Marathon gonna be 5 days then with the extra days for setup/bonus?

Yeah that sounds better with the last day as bonus, didn't factor that in. Teardown didn't take that long last time so it's not gonna be an all-day process, could have an actual bonus stream this time around.

How long did the setup take for the first marathon? Could do something where we setup during the day then start the marathon at night, or something else along those lines.

Just harder to justify the travel costs for a 5 day marathon versus a standard 7 day one in my mind.

Is this one gonna be weeklong marathon or a 5 day event like the last one? Would prefer the former tbh.

Anytime after May works for me. Early June is probably the best, it's between school semesters and doesn't conflict with other marathons. Few people in our room last NASA had to drop because the event overlapped with their finals by a week.

+hotel location was great. good food options, chicago was a train ride away, mall & an arcade was 15 minutes away, etc.
+marathon was dope. good runs, good atmosphere, liked the layout, couldn't have asked for more.
+free breakfast
+place never stank
+america finally jumped on the mafia train

-internet situation was shit. mainly the hotel's fault, but there should've been someone there a few days before the marathon to check the internet and make sure we could stream from it properly.
-tech issues were bad for the first few days, but you guys already know what happened. once everything got sorted out it seemed like the only big issue left was audio balancing, not sure if it was an issue with the equipment, lack of experience, or both.
-marathon dates were close to finals for a lot of people, two guys in our room had to drop because NASA overlapped with their exams. if the marathon was a week and a half/two weeks later it would have been fine.
-wished the marathon was 7 days instead of 5.

tl;dr marathon was a blast. you guys know what the tech issues were and hope the next marathon is longer & won't conflict with exams.

Run: Cool Spot

Required Equipment: Game Cart, SNES Console, SNES controller, CRT TV

Bringing: Game Cart, SNES Controller

Dates attending: 19th - 23rd

Can the marathon use my equipment for other runs: Yes.

1. Yeah.

2. Anytime, will be there through the entirety of the event.

3. SNES, Composite (maybe S-Video/RGB if someone brings a better setup), 8:7.

4. Will bring the game and controller, can bring an SNES Mini and cables if needed.

5. No.

hey peter come play TF2 with us sometime again that was fun

edit: also happy birthday my man

word.

I'd rather fork over the money and stay at the significantly nicer hotel honestly, especially with the food options nearby.

I'm biased since I'm in the Midwest, but Chicago would be a pretty good spot. Lots of runners in the Midwest and it's pretty centralized.

The main thing is the venue. Having it be out of someone's basement or house would work because this'll be a small scale thing, but we'd have to find someone with the ability to house us.